Emory Commons Publix Will Become “Brand New” Tonight

Decatur Metro| February 1, 2011| 3:31 pm

If you’re a frequent shopper at the Emory Commons Publix, you may have noticed some minor renovations in the space over the last few months. Well, apparently you ain’t seen nothin’ yet. DecaturMomof3 writes in…

Not sure if this is enough news to post, but the Emory Publix is closing tonight at 7 and will reopen tomorrow morning as a “brand new Publix” according to my cashier today. They have about 200 employees staying to work overnight to do inventory and improve the store.

Count me in as officially intrigued. What will this brand-new Publix offer and look like??

Publix does overnight inventory with a third party firm like RGIS. I have to wonder if the cashier is confused because it would in fact take all night with 200 people to do a full inventory and they do these usually annually or bi-annually.

Can’t wait to see an update — I hope it’s something exciting and not a mis-communication.

If I had to guess it will look a lot like the N. Druid Hills Publix. I can’t imagine they will at curbside service at Emory. They may also reset (rearrange) all the items in the store, but mostly it will just be cosmetic changes.

I used to work at this store, and unfortunately, that probably won’t happen. That section is an outlier in Publix stores, added before Publix really began marketing organic foods due to customer demand. Over the years, many mainstream organic foods have been worked into the shelves in the main store, while more obscure items are kept in the organic section. If anything I imagine it will eventually be done away with completely and all the items will be put in the main store.

She did say that they were going to reset the whole store tonight and was very excited about it, but maybe she was confused about the inventory part. I noticed that they did recently remodel their bathrooms. I’m glad this Publix is getting a face lift and would love to see curbside pickup and a bigger organic section.

The only remodeling that will help Taco Mac is if they remodel it to be just like the old Emory Village Taco Mac shack. And bring back $3 pitchers of Bud and Bud Light. And put up a dart board. Short of that, blah!

The majority of the Taco Mac work is going to be done overnight so there will only be a few weeks where it may be completely closed. There are still multiple floorplans being reviewed but there is some discussion of moving the bar. Instead of being at the back of the restaurant they may turn it so that the bar runs perpendicular with the wall nearest Sawicki’s. This would be similar to their layouts at Johns Creek and Duluth but with a much smaller footprint.

[edited] I know I might get censored for saying that but I’ve never understood their business plan. It’s like they take the wishes of their best customers and purposely disregard them. In full disclosure, I say this as a fellow businessman about to open a bar/restaurant in Atlanta. One of the models that we’ve followed is Taco Mac’s. At the same time, one of the models whose pitfalls we’ve tried to avoid is Taco Mac. I guess time will tell who was right.

I’ll never step foot in the Decatur Taco Mac again. They, like many Taco Mac franchises, seem to have mastered the art of having what seems like 10 servers on the floor at one time, all constantly hustling to and from the kitchen, but few actually doing ANYTHING.

The last straw was watching a bartender, and then a manager, play a snide game with a patron at the bar that went something like “what crappy, out of the way TV can we put the ATLANTA BRAVES on today?” It was the middle of June, and the fella just wanted the Braves to be on a centrally located TV. After my friend and I walked over to support our fellow patron and Braves fan, we promptly paid our check and left.

I was in there today. I noticed many of the signs on the walls had been removed (possibly the wall are being re-painted and new signs installed tonight?). Lots of extra staff were milling around, and it was obvious they were getting ready for an inventory (lots of empty displays, aisles labeled with special numbers, etc.). Look forward to seeing the changes!

I believe this will be a situation similar to the Shamrock Plaza Publix. That store also shut down early one night and was completely rearranged. The products on shelves and aisles changed, and wine moved from space in an aisle to having its own section. If the Emory Publix is closing early and having that many employees come in, it seems very likely everything in the store will change by tomorrow morning.

Talked with John Saneda, the manager and my neighbor this evening. They are doing a complete “redo”. Taking all merchandise off shelves and rearranging the store. Most grocers do this more often to adapt to market shifts and keep shoppers in the stores longer, but this is the first in 11 years at emory commons

I was in this morning. According to the check out clerk the organics will be throughout the store but have a different face than non-organics. They were in the process of taking down and restocking the wine section. At the checkouts you can get a new aisle listing – definitely needed.

The organic section is completely gone, with all of the products integrated into the store. currently there are some tables with clearance items where the organics were, with the frozen/dairy cases still in use for the moment. It seems like they still have a lot of cosmetic work to do in terms of missing signs and random splotches of paint and so on.

A disaster. People wandering around in a daze. Starting up aisles, and then stopping and turning around. No clerks stationed anywhere helpful to direct you to anything. You don’t get a list of where things are until you checkout, and only then in you complain loudly enough.

You can’t find anything without walking up and down every aisle about 3 times. My 30 minute trip stretched to a frustrating an infuriating hour and 15 minutes. I got sick of walking back and forth, peering up at the signs and down the aisles trying to find … bread? Oh no! Where did I pass the canned vegetables? Wait, I saw fruit juice somewhere. Where was it? Salad dressing? Peanut butter? Rats! I think the peanut butter was on the cereal aisle. Lightbulbs? No longer on the end at the back; hidden halfway down one of the aisles in the middle. They have been out of 60W bulbs for 3 weeks now. Canned nuts? Where the heck did I see them? Dog food? Oh man! It’s not at the back. Soup? I think it was at the front. Think of something else you want, just before you leave? Probably take you 15 minutes to find it. Prepare yourself for a lot of walking back and forth and grumbling. Very dissatisfied. They are apparently not at all interested in keeping loyal customers happy. I (used to) spend $200 a week in this store.

This is why I quit going to the little Kroger on Commerce Drive. They re-arranged that too. I never went back.

I gave up about halfway through my list (after an hour and 15 minutes of getting angry and hot) and went to the big Kroger. They are happy to take my $200 a week. Almost everything I had purchased at Publix was cheaper at Kroger too. The pineapple was $4.99 at Publix and $2.99 at Kroger. That was the first thing I noticed. A lot less stressful and a lot less infuriating when things stay where they belong.

I don’t plan to go back to Publix unless I absolutely have to, and then I will only go around the edges to bakery and deli, etc. and not wander the aisles looking for apple juice and bread. This is ridiculous. They have lost me as a loyal customer.

Even with the renovation, I plan to stick to publix.
From my experience Publix stores tend to be cleaner / better lit / nicer and friendlier employees.
the wife and I went on thursday and while grabbing charcoal asked an employee in that aisle where another item was, he couldn’t remember but ran and brought us back a new aisle list, without us even asking for it. On thursday, there must have been at least 1 employee at the front of each aisle answering questions / directing people, but again this was thursday.
rarely do i see a big price difference between kroger and publix,

IMHO, the Big Kroger is consistently cheaper, and it is un-rearranged, but it’s well…..BIG! And busy and impersonal. I need some time and courage to handle it, especially late at night when it seems awfully dark and deserted at the far reaches of the parking lot, where I’m always stuck. Their gas prices are great but the pumps are way out in asphalt nowhere and I have to put on my best urban skills late at night to efficiently pay, pump gas, and empty garbage, all while remaining outside of the locked car as little as possible. On the other hand, it has a Starbucks open to 9 PM and one particular crazed check out guy who’s pretty comic.

I find the Emory Commons Publix to be better and better over time under the leadership of John Saneda so I’m hoping that any inconveniences with the rearrangement are temporary. I was a little confused when I ran into the store last week but I was able to find a staff person immediately to find me what I wanted. I think a Starbucks or Caribou would fit in here more than the Big Kroger. I seem to be the only one buying coffee at the Big Kroger Starbucks. (Only way I can get the courage sometimes….)

I tend to use Big Kroger or Sam’s Club (also rearranged recently, confusing me much more than Publix) when I’m doing a big monster amount of food shopping and have plenty of time to trek the huge aisles and handle the long checkout lines. I use Emory Commons Publix more for those frequent, routine trips to buy staples and last-minute items when I don’t have a whole hour or more to spend at the store. It’s cheerier, friendlier, and quicker and the extra expense doesn’t add up as much for small to medium size shopping lists. On the other hand, I’m sure to see someone I know from Decatur and/or work. So I have to make sure I’m not looking too raunchy. At Big Kroger, I always feel overdressed.

Wow, I think there’s a movie script in those last couple of posts. ” awfully dark and deserted at the far reaches of the parking lot…” , “people wandering around in a daze”. Reminds me of Viggo Mortensen pushing the shopping cart in “The Road”. For all you smart phone geeks, I highly recommend a program called Splashshopper. It has changed my life. I no longer walk around in a daze in the Big Kroger.